Free Malice by Gabriell Lord

Boges.
    â€˜I thought you only found those in zoos,’ joked Ryan.
    â€˜I think we need to get serious with our investigation,’ said Boges, ignoring Ryan’s quip. ‘There’s something going on and I want to know what it is.’
    As we walked back inside, I could see the determination on my friends’ faces. It mirrored my own. ‘Let’s go right back to the beginning,’ I said.
    â€˜You mean the Perdita file?’ asked Ryan, his face showing the same resolute focus I’d often seen in Cal.
    I nodded. I opened the file. We crowded around as I turned the pages. We saw the documentation transferring the property from my parents’ possession to Sligo as trustee for me. The property transfers went back quite a way. Slowly, understanding dawned on me. ‘My parents didn’t buy this place,’ I said, pointing to some older documents, ‘they
inherited
it. It was a family property on my father’s side. Look, these rate notices go back over seventy years. That’s in my grandparents’ time.’
    Then I noticed something glued on the back inside cover of the file—an old envelope. I lifted the flap and pulled out a worn sheet of paper. ‘What’s this?’ I wondered. It was a peculiar drawing. I passed it to Boges and Ryan so that they could have a good look.

    â€˜It looks a bit like a ghost,’ said Boges.
    â€˜Ha! You’ve got ghosts on the brain!’ I laughed. Looking closer, the shapes still seemed to make no sense. It looked as if someone had been interrupted halfway through drawing something.
    â€˜And that looks like an “M” there,’ said Ryan, pointing. He was right. A faintly drawn M was marked next to two circles.
    â€˜Maybe it’s just meaningless doodling,’ I said, folding the page and slipping it back in the envelope.
    â€˜But why would someone store it so carefully in the file if it was completely meaningless?’ Ryan asked. It was a good question. ‘Everything to do with this place seems to involve a mystery.’
    â€˜Whoever is after this place is after the secret it holds,’ I agreed.
    â€˜But we’re going to beat them to it,’ Ryan said.
    â€˜I wonder,’ I said slowly, ‘if it really is about the Windraker and all that gold.’
    â€˜We need to ask a few more questions,’ said Boges. ‘Time for a trip into town tomorrow.’

DAY 19
12 days to go …
    Abercrombie Village
    2:49 pm
    Rose looked up in surprise as we walked into the store. ‘Hi, Rose,’ I said. ‘My name is Winter and these are my friends Ryan and Boges.’
    â€˜You’re the young people staying at Perdita!’ she said. ‘I didn’t expect—’
    Then she lowered her voice, looking behind her where a curtain swung in a doorway. Was she about to say that she didn’t expect to see us again? That we should have been frightened away by now?
    â€˜I was hoping you might be able to help us. Maybe you know a little bit about Perdita, its history?’
    â€˜There’s rumoured to be a secret,’ Rose whispered, looking behind her.
    â€˜We’ve worked that much out,’ said Boges. ‘We’ve heard stories of a sunken ship … laden with treasure … ’
    The curtain that separated the shop from the residence billowed open and Curly stepped through the doorway. Rose shrank in fear.
    â€˜What have you been saying, woman?’ He was trying to smile, to make it sound like a joke, but it wasn’t. Behind the false grin, his eyes were hard. ‘Frightening the customers?’
    â€˜Nothing, dear. Just chatting …’ Rose was Curly’s wife?
    â€˜That’s right,’ I said lightly. ‘We were just asking your wife about the history of the local area.’
    â€˜I heard you asking about a secret and that old house,’ he said. ‘Something to do with a ship? Where’d you hear